


First/Last Impressions

by MinervaDashwood



Series: Maddy Brosca [7]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: 30 Day Grey Warden Challenge, F/M, First Impressions, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-04-02 14:56:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4064209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinervaDashwood/pseuds/MinervaDashwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maddy's three closest companions and their initial and final impressions of her (confined to the Origins timeline).</p>
            </blockquote>





	First/Last Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> This is from the '30 Day Grey Warden Challenge', day three: "Write a detailed description on your Warden’s personality." I didn't feel like writing a catalog/list, so this took the form of POV drabbles.

**M o r r i g a n**

  
Such a little thing, old armor and young eyes, leading the men, clearly the only one with an ounce of sense.  The dwarf takes the treaties and says thank you, her eyes looking past Morrigan and at the ruins.  Dwarfs on the surface are rare, especially female ones, and she wonders at the dwarf’s story. What has led her to be in the company of magic-averse, chest-thumping men?  What fears lurk behind those eyes?

   
On the walk to Lothering, Morrigan watches Maddy eat every crumb of food, and finally sees the old mail for what it is: a pauper’s armor against the world.  When Maddy snaps at Alistair (“Morrigan’s not going to turn you into a toad.  She’s here to help us and it’s our job to keep her safe.”), Morrigan remembers the bear cubs cuddling in the snow, waiting for their mother who never returned.  

It is somewhere between Haven and Redcliffe when Maddy gives her the mirror, and Morrigan realizes how much she will miss her friend.  And worse still, how it will be looking into Maddy’s eyes and saying what must be said, lest this journey be for nothing.

 _Love_ is what happens instead of censure.  Maddy nods and says, “I trust you.  But do you have to leave?”  

“I do.”  

A week later, they stand on the stairs near the top of Fort Drakon, Maddy covered in darkspawn blood and Morrigan’s belly growing with Alistair’s seed.  “Stay safe,” the dwarf says, and Morrigan knows she doesn’t just mean the fight with the archdemon.  Maddy squeezes her hand and they both await their fate against the tainted dragon and the god-spirit within.

* * *

  
**Z e v r a n**

He cannot trick this one with flattery or gifts.  Deeds will be the key.  He waits at her flank, inserting himself between this lady dwarf and the human templar, and knocks an oncoming bandit to the ground.  The dwarf slams her heel into the bandit’s wrist, and Zevran slits the enemy’s throat.  Zevran smiles, and so does she.  The wicked gleam in her eyes makes his heart race.  He imagines biting into her lower lip and dragging his teeth along her flesh.  

“I like you,” she says, wiping her dagger on the dead bandit’s skirt.  

Zevran smirks.  Best not to think about biting this one, he tells himself, but the words ring hollow.  

Two days later, she whispers to him about _tension_ and _backward surfacers_ and their _backward ways_.  It is not long before she’s beneath him on her bedroll, biting down on her own hand to keep from crying out.  “Shit, that was amazing,” she tells him afterward, already dressing and pushing his clothes into his hands.  

This happens three more times, and after their forth coupling, he tries to hide her clothes so he can keep her naked next to him and presses kisses onto her neck.  “Let me stay, _bellissima_ ,” he says, “and I will kiss you awake and satisfy you again.”   

She is silent, blanket at her waist, body still, but fingers tightly gripping her covers.  “I see the way you look at others.  Let’s not pretend this is other than what it is. A good fuck and nothing more.”  

“As you wish.”  His chest and belly ache, but he smirks at her and leaves her tent for the last time.

The boots and the gloves she gives him later, making it clear she will never bed him again.  The rejection stings, but as he polishes his leather gifts, he sees his time with her like a salve.  He is not healed and won’t be for some time, but she has helped. 

When Taliesen comes for him, Zevran never leaves the wardens’ sides, and he fights between them once more.  This time it is Maddy who slays his demon--his hand shakes when he holds the blade at Taliesen’s throat--and the monsters that have been chasing him these ten months are suddenly gone. 

Afterwards, the two of them leave the others behind and walk to the Pearl.  He bathes in the washroom while she cleans his armor in the rented bedchamber.  The bed stays untouched, but they sit at the table, Maddy polishing his leathers and Zevran downing a flask after flask of Antivan fire.  She did not choose him, but that matters less than it used to.  They may not share a tent, but they share spilled blood and the assassin’s thirst for more.  He was born a slave and she was that in all but name.  But look at them now:  a duster and a Crow, the world at their feet save the pesky archdemon between them and peace.

He means it when he tells her he’d follow her to the Black City. But the surprising thing is, he knows she’d follow him, too.

* * *

  
**A l i s t a i r**

He didn’t know about the small hovel she called home or the way her belly ached after another day of too little food.  He didn’t know about the compromises she made to keep her family safe.  Truth was, when she killed that bandit group outside of Lothering, he thought she was heartless, cruel even.  But then she gave those elves their belongings and fished out coins from some hidden place in her armor and he thought maybe he had it a little wrong.

  
When her first nightmare sent her scrambling through the forest, crying and voiceless, moving so quickly he’d never have found her without the dog, Alistair finally clawed his out of the pit of his own grief and realized he wasn’t the only one suffering.  Why hadn’t he bothered to ask?  What made him think only his trials that were painful?  

  
She was afraid of the sky and of rain and the cold and merchants and nobles.  She cornered Ser Landry in the back alley without a second thought, but when Alistair asked her to visit the stall with the dwarven wares, she hid behind him and didn’t speak.

  
After he meets Goldanna, Maddy's voice is cold as the stone she came from. “You should learn that everyone is only out for themselves.” 

But later, after he’s thought on it some more and tells her as much, she puts her hand on his elbow, holding him still. 

“Forget what I said.  Don’t let what happened with your sister change who you are.” 

“Change who I am?” 

“You’re a good man already, _salroka_.  If Goldanna can’t see what I do, then it’s her loss.”

  
A week passes before he’s brave enough to ask what _salroka_ means, but by then he’s holding her hand by the campfire and hearing _one at my side_ makes him realize the family he’s always wanted is right here, next to him.


End file.
